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Daily News Brief: Disney's New House of the Future

Paul_Lilly
Feb 14, 2008

Page 1 of 10

Disney Resurrects Future House

Disney opened the original
House of the Future
back in 1957
, and quickly closed its doors just a decade later. But when one door closes, another one opens, even if it takes 40 years. Disney's new
House of the Future
, a
$15 million project
collaborated with Microsoft, HP, LifeWare, and Taylor Morrison, will open its doors this May in Tomorrowland. From countertops that identify groceries to self-adjusting artwork, the tech filled house will keep its roots in modern society rather than take on a futuristic Jetsons-type theme.

PC Gaming Not Dead!

Year after year, some pundit offers a pre-emptive obituary for computer games, citing sales numbers that ignore online subscriptions and digital downloads. And despite the digital death knells, developers keep churning out blockbuster titles for the PC. Still not convinced all is well? That's okay, because
according to Mercury News
, a consortium dubbed the PC Gaming Alliance is under construction. The alliance, which is rumored to include Intel, AMD, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and other heavyweights, will seek to keep PC gaming competitive with game consoles, and keep developers interested. Sleep better tonight.

NVIDIA Enjoys Record Profits, But...

...watched as stock prices
dropped 10 percent
this morning. The opening tumble comes just one day after
NVIDIA announced
record profits for Q4 and fiscal year 2008. But rather than focus on the record breaking $1.20 billion fourth quarter revenue or 57 percent net income increase, investors were spooked over a jump in first quarter expenses.

KOTOR 2? Not So Fast...

Fans of BioWare's KOTOR and Criterion's Black were seen doing the happy dance after catching wind that
sequels were in the works
, but EA cautioned that such celebrations might be premature. The confusion stemmed when EA's CEO John Riccitiello presented a slide to analysts listing the aforementioned titles, but EA clarified the misunderstanding by saying the slide "
addresses future and past titles
" and "
do not specifically address future sequels
." Killjoy.

Sex Gadget Editorial

CES and AVN has come and gone, but with Valentine's Day upon us, it's the one other time of the year when sex and tech can walk hand in hand. MSNBC's posted a 2-page article discussing how the two are intertwined, and what the future holds for virtual sex. If that sounds interesting, click
here
, but given the content (and a couple of pics), take caution doing so at work.

The $700 SDHC Card

Not content to let SanDisk own the 32GB SDHC flash media market,
Panasonic announced
they'll have their own offering in April. And taking it one step further, Panasonic's RP-DSV32GU1K boasts a 20MB/sec transfer rate under optimal conditions compared to the SanDisk Ultra II's 15MB/sec read and 10MB/sec write. Panasonic's also touting temperature tolerance of -13F to 185F on the industrial grade memory. All told, expect to pay $700 for the wonder chip.

Powered Clothing

What if you could produce electricity just by walking or standing in a breeze? Wear the right clothes, and it might be possible. Using tiny wires woven into fabric, scientists have discovered a way to generate electricity every time your clothes get ruffled. And don't think you have to be a gymnast - normal movement will be enough to produce useuable electricity. Zhong Lin Wang and his team of researchers at the Georgia Institue of Technology used fibers coated with gold, but believes less expensive materials could work just as well. Read more
here
.

Dream Machine:

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